Better Than a Hit

The movies of our own lives are typically black and white, there being no place for reality’s subtle color in a film populated by white knights and black-hatted villains. This may be more agreeable to the ego’s plot line, but not terribly useful when it comes to self cultivation.

We were the last family among my friends to get a color television and its arrival was a very big deal. A Zenith (even the name was exotic) with faux wood speaker grating, and weighing more than an Oldsmobile. After the initial excitement wore off, I concluded in typically melancholic fashion, that something important was permanently lost and life had been better in black and white. As much as I loved watching NFL football on the Zenith, my favorite shows weren’t holding up as well to the scrutiny of color. The sanctimonious Steve McGarett of Hawaii Five O, for instance, was completely undeserving of Maui’s aquamarine vistas because he was, after all, cut from the cloth of Dragnet.

The I Ching, by and large, advises against a black and white point of view, with the notable exception of hexagram 44 Encountering – which warns against the presence of evil forces in and around you and how you must summon the strength and support required to dispatch them. And as for the agent of “evil” – according to Master Alfred Huang – their misfortune is entirely of their own making, and there’s nothing you can do about it. He references the ancient sage adage, “If one plants melons, one reaps melons”.

When I’ve received this reading either for myself or on behalf of someone else asking for my help, the advice couldn’t be much clearer. Eject! Get the hell out of Dodge! Cut your losses! And once you do, whatever your immediate difficulties may be, at least you’ll be operating from a place of peace. Or in the words of the late Peter Tosh, who may have appreciated the title of this song….it’s time to “Walk and Don’t Look Back.”

“Better Than a Hit” performed by RH, Whit Willliams, Darin Murphy and Jason Garcia
Recorded by RH at The Star Apple Kingdom and Lars Goransson at Sounds Outrageous
Mixed and mastered by Lars